📝La jurisprudence massive (The Massive Jurisprudence)

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► Full Reference: M.-A. Frison-Roche, in collaboration with Serge Bories, "La jurisprudence massive" ("The Massive Jurisprudence"), D. 1993, chron., pp. 287-330

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📝read the article (in French)

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► English Summary of the article: The term "jurisprudence" is likely to have several meanings: on the one hand, jurisprudence stricto sensu, that emanating from the High Courts; on the other hand, "massive jurisprudence", designating all legal decisions rendered by the courts. This study of "mass case law" is divided into two parts: the first sets out the advantages of analysing mass judgments (I.), and the second develops the method that should be used to study these judgments (II.).

The analysis of massive jurisprudence is of threefold interest: educational, scientific and practical. Educational, in that it provides a more concrete, comprehensive and detailed view of the subject being taught. Scientific, in that it provides a global perspective, making it possible to take a closer look at reality and thus analyse the phenomena of pluralism in case law and anticipate 'elite case law' or legislative developments. And lastly, it is practical, in that it enables legislators to learn as quickly as possible about the practical application of the law and its consequences, so that they can potentially react to counter any perverse effects and/or use this information to adapt their legal policy decisions.

The analysis method involves 3 stages. Firstly, a prior qualitative analysis of the banal judgment must be carried out, based on the extraction of key words and concepts contained in the decision, in order to transform the raw information into data. Next, categories of analysis need to be established, based on the structure of the data collected and the research hypotheses, in order to process the mass of refined data collected. It is also essential to have access to all the data used to adopt the decision. In the final stage, complementary methods, such as studying the case file or interviewing magistrates, should be added to the textual analysis.

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